Thoughts on Youth Soccer from a Soccer Dad, Fan, Coach and Administrator

My 96 girls travel players are mostly freshmen in high school now, all playing on their respective school teams (we have players at five different schools). To say it has been a shock for some would be an understatement, even those playing Varsity. Coming from the physical, intense, and fast paced environment of club soccer, it’s been an interesting adjustment for some in how they’re being asked to play. After watching a few of their school matches and seeing what they were trying to do only to be admonished for it, I wrote the following and sent it out to all of them:

When you cross that touchline – you are a warrior.

No opponent is going to step aside so you can score at will all by yourself. If you blindly turnover the ball to ‘be safe’ your opponents will only thank you. If you stand around waiting for the ball, your opponents will only pass you by. Yet at times it can seem that’s all you’re encouraged to do.

But you know better. That is not how you’ve been trained.

You don’t clear it – you possess it. You don’t stand still, you are always in motion. You don’t ‘stay in your circle’ you dash across the field and do the unexpected. You don’t ‘just kick it’, you bring it up field to start an attack or score. You don’t do it all yourself, you send the ball to open teammates, even if they’re near your own goal. You don’t fear the lightning quick striker, you steal her thunder and the ball at a full sprint. You stay right behind her shoulder, ensuring she knows you are always there. You don’t fear the distance, you drill the shot at the corner. You don’t watch the shot get taken, you dive in for the tackle knowing you’ll have more to show for it than dirty socks.

You’ve trained too hard for too long and endured too much to conform to some prim idea of how girls should play soccer. Soccer itself grew out of a war game and you have a warrior’s spirit. Don’t ever forget that’s part of why you love ‘the beautiful game’!

5 Comments on “Keeping That Warrior Spirit”

WOW….you have captured my daughter’s HS season in a nutshell. I am going to remind her of this VERY discipline. Her schools coach lacks the ability to teach and play a possession game so….they kick and run and by the 2nd half 90% of the team is spent.

They are *not* YOUR players when they are playing for another team. How would you like it if the coach who had these players before you sent them a note during your club season about the “incorrect” encouragement — or if the high school coaches sent “their” players a note during your season that your coaching is not what they have trained them to prepare for the next school season.

School soccer is different from club soccer — one has a primary focus on winning with only a short preparation period and limited training between matches. The school coach does not have the time or luxury to develop players (except conditioning).

Club soccer should have a focus on developing technique for individual players (early stages) and developing tactical techniques (older stages). Club teams should have fewer matches spread out over a longer period so more training occurs and matches are places to apply what is learned and practice in training in pressure situations. The club coach has the luxury to work on development, preferably with winning more than losing as a secondary outcome.

The two are not completely mutually exclusive, but they are not totally complementary either. In the end, the kids and parents decide — knowing that each setting has benefits and costs. While it may be acceptable to encourage a warrior spirit, which probably most would agree is important in both settings, I would recommend you think whether your characterization of how other coaches, who have different objectives, pressures, and resources, approach the game is actually confusing to *your* players.

I’m with you 100% if the coach is advising something illegal, unethical, or unsafe. Otherwise, remember the mantra we tell parents at the youth level – encourage but don’t tell the players how to play from the other side of the field?

I’ll have to disagree with you a bit there. First, the school coaches have an inordinate amount of time to train the players. They practice every afternoon they do not have matches. And when they do they still practice 2-3 times a week. That’s more than most clubs by far. I’ve had players and my own children lament that they run and run and do hills and run and run, but don’t touch the ball much. That’s not club vs school – that’s just not teaching soccer. My point is both environments exist to teach *soccer*. I’m not saying ‘Oh you should use THIS formation, or you should use THIS technique’. I’m saying it does players a disservice to tell them NOT to do what they a) have been trained to do and b) they know they should do because at this age they understand the game. So telling them to just ‘kick it out’ so they give the ball to the other team over and over is not soccer. And players who have trained for years with the bumps, bruises, and scars to prove it trying to maintain possession deserve better and resent being told to do what they *know* they should not.

One of my colleagues (who is a school coach) has a phrase – he describes some HS programs as ‘Country Club Soccer’. It’s a social club, not a sports team. They stay in shape by running a lot, kick the ball any way they can, and their parents cheer and yell ‘great job’. Note I said some. And that’s the key. This is not about HOW you teach soccer. It’s that some programs have coaches will WILL teach soccer and others who will not. And *that* does a disservice to the many players who spend their entire childhoods learning soccer because they love it and a select few who may want to play at a higher level some day.

So yes, I get 100% what you are saying that just like we expect in club, to not do the same thing in school. Completely with you. But things in school can reach such an extreme where it’s way beyond philosophy of how to coach soccer and rises to the level of not teaching it at all. And that’s not fair to the players and is a reason so many higher level players are choosing not to play in school. And that’s unfortunate because it IS a big deal to play for your school team. But those with a longer term view are more often choosing what is best for their development vs their social life. And that’s an unfortunate choice to be forced upon them because their school won’t hire a coach who knows what they are doing (something that would never be tolerated in a football program – just sayin..)

Soccer Dad – Perhaps being from the Northeast, there seems to be some difference between high school and club soccer than other regions, especially the time of year when it is played (Fall in NE versus winter or spring in other areas).

For example, when school soccer is played in the fall, the majority of clubs (really all players) in my area encourage kids to take time off from organized soccer from July (depending on how far they progress in State cup/regionals) to mid-August. Granted, the players should keep working out and touching the ball on their own, but that level of dedication is highly variable. So, many show up in late August with some need for conditioning – although I agree that good coaches know how to train conditioning WITH the ball.

The school season here because of the weather is compacted with 18-20 matches (probably too many!) compacted into 10 or so weeks. The club season has that many (excluding indoor) over 14-18 weeks – and the clubs have indoor season to work on strength and conditioning. And I agree – it is a bit more social (some players don’t play club, although that is increasingly less so at the better school programs at the varsity level). However, more matches compressed into shorter schedule means less focus on development.

I also agree that depending on the strength of the public school teacher union and the school collective bargaining agreements, there can be coaches selected based purely on adding some dollars to a teacher’s bottom line. However, in those cases with an unqualified coach (and it seems you are describing one), it really is the obligation of the parents to petition the school boards and the state school athletic association to demand some level of certification – we don’t have that issue in my area as many of the coaches have some degree of licenses and ODP or club affiliations. Our club parents are very vocal in the district PTO, booster club, and school board election cycle so many of the coaches are not teachers (in fact, 3 of the 4 at the closest HS to our club). I know one local school where another club that had the greatest number of players on the school team offered to provide an assistant coach (volunteer and then paid by donation from the club) and give “under the radar” coaching.

While I agree it’s unfortunate the situation you describe, I just think you and like minded parents/club officials should exhaust other methods before firing off a note to the players during their season. What would you all do if this was a bad classroom teacher?

I also think that if the players are trained for a majority of the year in the “right” way, then they’ll simply play that way during the school season, despite what the coach yells (FYI – Have you recommended to the players’ parent that they videotape the matches? I know that is an effective technique our club uses to show coaches how they are inadvertently “overcoaching” during matches.